


Grooving Up Slowly

by Delphinapterus



Category: Supernatural RPF
Genre: Established Relationship, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-01-17
Updated: 2009-01-17
Packaged: 2017-10-30 09:49:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,561
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/330411
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Delphinapterus/pseuds/Delphinapterus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They’ve been apart for so long.  Now it’s time to come together.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Grooving Up Slowly

**Author's Note:**

> Written for for [](http://spn-j2-xmas.livejournal.com/profile)[**spn_j2_xmas**](http://spn-j2-xmas.livejournal.com/) gift exchange as a gift for [](http://deanlives.livejournal.com/profile)[**deanlives**](http://deanlives.livejournal.com/) who asked for J2, romantic with a happy ending. I hope you enjoy this. Title taken from the lyrics to "Come Together" by Lennon/McCartney. Beta by [](http://yourlibrarian.livejournal.com/profile)[**yourlibrarian**](http://yourlibrarian.livejournal.com/), any mistakes are mine. Comments and crit welcome and appreciated.

This isn’t a good year for them. Jared has been stuck in Prague filming his latest action movie while Jensen has been rattling from Japan, to California, then up to Calgary for his latest film. They are good movies with good parts but Jensen is starting to wish for anything – even another strike – to give him and Jared some time off. He hasn’t seen Jared in eight months. Technically he and Jared have met up for a couple of days here and there in those last eight months but Jensen can still count the total number on one hand. He doesn’t even count two of those occasions because they were just he and Jared being in the same city and getting to have a dinner date in-between promo work and meetings. Eight months. Two hundred and forty four days. It’s a big stretch for them to go so long without seeing each other. They’ve never had the day-to-day bubble of just them that _Supernatural_ provided for five years, but still, brief little day visits are much less than anything they’ve dealt with before and Jensen hates it.

He misses getting to come back to his home where Jared’s big shoes are mingled with his own and their coats hang side by side in the entry. He misses the dog and the smell of Jared’s aftershave. The production company always puts him up some place nice but it isn’t home and the rooms are coolly impersonal places even after his clothing and belongings are strewn around after he’s been living in the room for weeks. He doesn’t dare take pictures of Jared with him just like Jared carries no pictures of him where anyone could find them. He wants, has always wanted, to be able to keep a framed picture of Jared next to the bed but that would look too odd.

Even though he’s resigned himself to no obvious pictures, Jensen still breaks the no photos rule just a bit because he carries an old photo of Jared tucked into the back of his wallet behind his driver’s license and organ donor card, wedged firmly under his emergency contact information and credit cards. It’s from years ago now, Jared was still on the short side of thirty five and still wearing his hair in the long mop cut that he had reverted back to after the initial euphoria of a buzz cut that the ending of _Supernatural_ allowed him. There are white creases worn into the photo because Jensen has folded and unfolded it so many times but Jared’s face is still clear. He’s got one arm thrown wide in mid-gesture and the other pulling Jensen next to him. They both look so relaxed. Jensen knows that at the time they’d both been worried about finding work, but at that party, surrounded by the sound of guitars and laughter, they’d been relaxed and loose with happiness. It is a good picture and there’s a real one framed in their bedroom. That copy doesn’t have the cracked fold lines through Jensen’s face. In this copy though, he cares nothing about his own face but he doesn’t want to damage Jared. He’s pretty sure Jared knows about it but he doesn’t say anything so Jensen never says anything about the photo he knows Jared carries in his own wallet.

Before this year they used to send each other things from location, but lately it has stopped. Rationally, Jensen knows that it’s just because they’ve each been too busy to do it. It has nothing to do with a slump in their relationship or Jared falling out of love with him but all the same it still stings a little to know that Jared isn’t going to be sending him weird postcards or little knickknacks. He still has most of them, and the stuffed Mountie bear clutching the CN Tower that Jared sent him from Toronto still sits, tucked carefully back, on the top shelf of the one bookcase.

Jensen gets back two days earlier than Jared. He knows Jared is going to be tired because Jared is always tired after the end of shooting, and this one has been dragging on. The calls from Jared have been getting increasingly short as he tries not to bitch about the latest clash between the director and his leading lady, while still being positive about the shoot. Jared’s unfailingly sunny personality is starting to get frayed around the edges, and his way of coping is to stop talking about what annoys him. Jensen knows better than to push him on it because the more Jared talks about whatever is frustrating him, the more he thinks about it. As open as Jared is, when he has a problem he’s learned that sometimes he just can’t do anything about it without making things worse, so he tries to focus on better things. Just as Jared listens to Jensen bitching when something is annoying him, Jensen tells Jared stories in an effort to take his mind off the problem. When they were first muddling through this thing after _Supernatural_ ended, Jensen had started collecting jokes in an effort to be funnier for Jared. Now he does it for friendly competition, trying to find one that Jared hasn’t heard already.

He makes sure the house is stocked with Jared’s favorites, and goes to retrieve the dog from the service. Getting Jared’s favorites is easy. He still loves all the brightly coloured candy that’s placed right at the eye level of a seven year old, but slowly he’s added other things into his list. Jensen isn’t expecting to have any trouble picking everything up. After the second grocery store, Jensen decided he was much too optimistic. It turned out to be a fruitless and frustrating search to find the specific brand of dried apricots Jared loves, so Jensen ends up getting several varieties in the hope that at least one of them will come close. By the time he’s got the apricots he’s been stopped twice by fans looking for autographs and pictures. While it makes him happy to see all the promo work is paying off, he still wishes he could do his grocery shopping in peace. As he pulls onto the freeway, he smiles, thinking how the dog is going to be so happy to see him.

Usually they leave the dog, Argos, with Chad because he's from a litter Chad’s bitch had three years ago (which also happened to be the impetus for Chad finally giving in to Jared’s lectures and getting her spayed). Chad feels some sort of demented grandfatherlyness to Argos, since he was the runt. Their dog service is good – Jared would never let any of his dogs stay at a place that wasn’t – but Jensen is always reminded of a funeral parlor when he pulls up. Jared thinks it’s hilarious and keeps demanding Jensen show him a funeral parlor with several large dog statues in front of it.

The girl who brings Argos out has hair the colour of cranberry sauce and a smiley face name-tag pinned to her shirt that indentifies her as Colby. Argos doesn’t move when Jensen steps forward, and Jensen wonders if their dog has forgotten them in eight months. Two hundred and forty four days. What is he going to tell Jared if their dog rejects them? The girl gives Argos a gentle nudge, and Jensen appreciates that she tries to make it discrete even though he can see the press of her knee against Argos’ flank. Argos looks back at her.

“Please don’t worry, Mr. Ackles. This is quite normal after such a long stay.”

Jensen tries not to feel as though she’s calling him a bad owner. Damn Chad for not having his dog fixed and damn Jared for rescuing the runt. Now the stupid dog doesn’t acknowledge him and he’s going to have to tell Jared that their dog has repudiated them.

“There’s a jar of jerky just to your left. We keep it there just in case. He just needs a chance to recognize you.” She smiles encouragingly at him.

He pries the lid up and pulls out a strip of dried meat. It feels greasy against his skin, but Argos perks up from where he’s been laying on the floor. Jensen can see his nose sniffing and he holds out the jerky.

“Com’on boy, com’ere Argos. There’s a good boy.” He croons in his most persuasive voice.

 

Jensen kneels and keeps crooning. It’s downright embarrassing how difficult it is to bribe their dog. For all Argos shares Jared’s boundless enthusiasm for life, he apparently missed sharing Jared’s love to food. Jensen wiggles the jerky in what he hopes is an enticing manner and Argos launches himself across the floor. He snaps the jerky out of Jensen’s hand and it disappears instantly. Jensen forces himself not to retract his hand. Argos licks his chops and leans forward to sniff at Jensen’s fingers. He makes a little yipping noise and jumps against Jensen. Dog hair is getting on his clothes and he doesn’t care, because their dog finally seems to have remembered him.

When they get back to the house there are no calls from Jared. Nothing on his cell and Jensen tries not to feel miserable that Jared hasn’t called. He’s going to be seeing him in a couple days. He makes himself a panini using the bright red enamel pan that Steve swears up and down is better than the traditional grill. The heavy cast iron lid makes a startlingly loud bang when it hits the floor, and Jensen gingerly picks it up hoping he hasn’t dented the wood floor. The floor is undamaged although Argos hasn’t returned to the kitchen. He doesn’t return until Jensen offers him a generous slice of ham.

He crawls into bed wishing that he hadn’t agreed to an early morning phone interview. The alternative radio station that Jared had programmed the alarm to nine months ago, is apparently no longer on air, and Jensen gets woken by a blast of static. If he were Jared he’d do the interview in bed. Long experience has taught him to be on his guard against saying anything dumb, and for that he needs to feel professional. So he showers and dresses as though the interviewer is actually going to see that he’s wearing a crisp black dress shirt and blue jeans.

“So, Mr. Jensen,” the interviewer says breathily, and Jensen is tossed back twelve years to the _Bloody Valentine_ promos. He hopes they don’t bring up _Devour_. It’s been almost two years since that film was brought up, and by his calculations it’s about time for it to make another appearance. Nothing else he’s done has haunted him like _Devour_ , which he finds by turns unsettling and bemusing. As far as he knows, Pitt isn’t haunted by _Cutting Class_ , and it was just as bad as _Devour_. It doesn’t matter when he brings it up, Jared says he’s cursed and ends up laughing. It’s easy for Jared to do since nobody, not even Chad, ever brings up _The Christmas Cottage_. He hears the interviewer take a deep breath and braces.

 

“Your new movie, _And Swans Melt into Elephants_ , has been described as part of the return to steam punk. Do you think that’s a fair assessment?”

“There are elements certainly.”

With that, he falls into the easy standard answer the studio PR team has deemed most appropriate. It’s all going so well, when the interviewer asks the question he’s come to dread, “Do you mind answering a more personal question?”

He can’t say no, not without looking bad, so he represses a sigh and says, in his best “I’m an open and uninteresting book” voice, “sure what do you want to know?”

There’s a short pause and he can hear paper rustling. He takes the opportunity to check his phone, in the hope that Jared will have at least texted him. There’s nothing. Argos walks past him but doesn’t venture close enough for Jensen to pet him. Their dog apparently still doesn’t like him all that much. He scribbles down a note to buy more dog treats.

“So you’re single?”

God he hates this question. He used to play the pronoun game, say there was somebody special, but his agent made him quit that so he says, with what he hopes sounds like cheerful nonchalance, “I don’t get to meet a lot of people like that because of everything happening with _Swans_. I hope it happens eventually.”

“Yeah, you never know, you have a week off.”

“Right.”

“So last question, we asked the fans what they’d like to know and this one turned out to be the most popular, so,” he pauses dramatically and Jensen really hopes this isn’t going to be too strange. At least nobody can see his face.

“There’ve been rumours that you’re going to be making a new odd couple movie with Jared Padalecki, your former co-star on _Supernatural_. Care to confirm them?”

That’s the question? He was expecting something so much worse he wants to laugh in relief. He hears the interviewer make a little clicking sound with his throat.

“You two are still friendly right?” the interviewer prompts him, sounding hesitant for the first time.

“Jared and I are still friends. We’re both busy so we haven’t seen each other in a while,” _Eight months. Two hundred and forty four days_ , “but we keep in touch. As for a movie, no. There’s no plan for us to do a movie together at this time. I wouldn’t say no to doing one if anyone wanted me to do it, but so far nobody’s asked.”

“That’s too bad. You guys had great chemistry back in the day.”

 

After the interview, Jensen curls onto the couch and goes through the list of reasons why he isn’t going to announce to the world that he is madly in love with Jared Padalecki. It’s a good, sensible list, and it makes him feel miserable, even though he knows that Jared has an equally sensible list for why he’s not going to say anything either. They haven’t even mentioned they live together, and unless the paparazzi outs them, Jensen figures that they’ll keep on as they have been. It’s far from ideal, but he’d take it over having one of his agent-suggested girlfriends any day.

He isn’t planning to do anything special for Jared, except he’s sort of lonely and bored like he never was when he had to be working on the movie. He finds he needs to do something to take his mind off the fact that he still hasn’t heard from Jared. Therefore he decides that he might as well do something productive, which is how he ends up flipping through the collection of recipe books Steve and Chris have given him over the years looking for a good chocolate chip cookie recipe.

Of course, Jared has to call right when he’s in the middle of rolling the dough into balls so he can flatten them with a fork. Jensen grabs for the phone, ignoring the fact that his fingers are covered with cookie dough which is going to leave sticky, buttery spots on the phone.

“Hey Jense,” Jared says and Jensen thinks he sounds exhausted. “I’m flying in early.”

“Awesome, man.”

“Yeah, anyway, do you think you could leave the light on?”

“What? When are you getting in?”

“Probably about,” there’s a pause while Jared calculates the time difference, “3:30 in the morning.”

Jensen doesn’t even think about it., “I’ll come get you.”

“Jensen,” Jared breathes, his voice soft with surprise. He knows how much Jensen loves to sleep uninterrupted.

“I miss you.”

“Yeah, me too.”

Jensen hears a loud speaker in the background, and Jared sighs. “I have to go. See you tonight.” There’s a pause. “Love you.”

“Love you too, Jay,” he says and hangs up before the sound of silence can get depressing.

 

He burns his tongue on a hot chocolate chip when he’s doing quality control on the cookies, so he ends up standing at the arrivals gate waiting for Jared while trying to drink his coffee, black with three espresso shots, without irritating his burnt tongue. Naturally the flight is late arriving. He tips his head back, and slouches down in the hard chair. He just has time for a quick power nap. Even with the nap at home, he still feels tired and wants nothing more than to sleep. He can't believe he ever thought fondly about the eighteen and twenty hour days of _Supernatural_.

The sudden increase in noise rouses him, and he sees the sign has flipped to announce the plane has arrived. He tosses the cup into a trash bin and wanders closer to the arrivals door. A steady stream of people trickle out but none of them are Jared. He stands back, watching while people embrace, and wishing that Jared would hurry up. He watches a couple go in for a hug only to pull back at the last second, as though they are both unsure if the other person actually wants to be hugged. Jensen watches as they smile at each other, small tense little smiles, and walk without touching toward the baggage claim. The gold rings on their fingers catch the light, and he wonders how long they’ve been together. He has no ring on his finger and he knows that he shouldn’t risk pulling Jared into a public hug. Jensen slumps back against the wall and waits.

It seems like the tail end of people when Jared finally strides out of the doors looking tired and just as big as Jensen remembers him. There are dark circles under Jared’s eyes and his cheekbones stand out sharper than they did eight months ago, but otherwise he’s still the same. Jensen feels his heart clench, the same little clench it has been doing ever since he first figured out that he really did love Jared. Jared smiles when he meets Jensen’s eyes, teeth blindingly white against the dark tan he has acquired for the movie, and just like that he knows they’re as good as they were two hundred and forty four days ago. Jared still doesn’t have Jensen's qualms about public displays, and sweeps him into a bone-crushing hug. Jared smells sweaty under the spice of his cologne and Jensen can feel his body heat seeping through the fabric of his shirt. They break apart sooner than he’d like, but it has to be like that. A quick hug can be passed off as friends – anything more and things start to look suspicious.

Once they are safely behind the tinted-glass windows of the car, Jared sighs and rests his hand on the back of Jensen’s neck. His thumb strokes small circles against Jensen’s skin as he drives, and he can feel the warmth from Jared’s hand soaking into his neck. He desperately wants to lean in for a kiss, but they can’t; not here where anybody could see. Jared closes his eyes, and the fatigue lines around his eyes smooth out. The entire drive back is silent. Jared looks like he’s sleeping, except for the continual gentle caress of his thumb against Jensen’s skin.

As Jensen fits his key into the lock, he can feel his shoulders tensing. Argos had watched him leave from the far end of the hall and he prays that their dog is waiting behind the door. He doesn’t want Jared to be rejected by the puppy he saved, and Jensen isn’t sure that Argos will be drawn by the smell of a dog treat. The hall is empty and Jensen feels his heart sinking. Behind him, he hears Jared throwing the bolt home. Fully intending to explain their dog’s early Alzheimer’s to Jared, he turns around and Jared pulls him into a hard hug, pushing him back so that he is resting against the wall. Jared bends forward and kisses him.

His lips are dry and Jensen can feel the rasp of skin where they are starting to peel. Jared’s tongue slips into his mouth, soft and slow, easing in and Jensen lets his own tongue stroke against Jared’s as they kiss. Jensen hears the click of dog claws, then feels the heavy weight of Argos’ body pushing against his legs, as the dog tries to slide into the space between their legs. Jared pulls away, laughing, and kneels down to give Argos a vigorous pet.

“I could sleep for a week,” Jared says, even as he’s scratching into the thick fur behind one of Argos’ ears.

Jensen squeezes Jared’s shoulder, feeling the solidness of muscle under his hand. “Let me take you to bed, if you’re finished with the dog?”

Jared stands, pulls him into another slow gentle kiss, before curling a hand around his waist as they walk toward the bedroom. Jared has a bruise running over the curve of his right hip from a stunt, and Jensen takes the time to kiss it softly before laying down next to Jared. They are both too tired to do anything more except hook their feet together. Jensen falls asleep to the steady beat of Jared’s heart and the feeling of Jared’s chest rising and falling underneath his hand.


End file.
